The ‘Guardian Spring’: Is ‘Comment is Free’ easing its ban on CiF Watch?

As we’ve noted previously, despite the relative improvement of the moderation of comments beneath the line at ‘Comment is Free’ over the years, moderators seem to have an at least unofficial policy of immediately deleting any mention of, and links to, this blog.  Indeed, as we recounted in a post, though I was for some time allowed to comment using my real name, with a bio noting that I spent my days guarding the Guardian, at some point I fell out of favor with the politburo and was banned – and my comments airbrushed from ‘CiF’ history.

Now, being the official nemesis of a paper cheekily yet accurately described by one prominent commentator as “the English-language newspaper least friendly to Israel on earth” is a badge we wear proudly, and, happy warriors that we are, we take their hostility in the face of our dogged efforts to chip away at their dwindling journalistic legitimacy as a sign of our effectiveness.  Though they may fancy the notion that they’re indifferent to our presence, the fact that even furtive attempts to allude to our presence are immediately flagged by their “professional” moderators would suggest otherwise.

However, yesterday, something quite curious occurred.

In the comment thread beneath the Guardian editorial praising the East London Mosque (fisked by Harry’s Place in a post cross-posted here), there was this, by a commenter responding to a comment (which, as you see, was deleted) that had dared to mention these blogging critiques of their apologia for radical Islam.

comment

And, then there was this:

comment

A few observations:

  • Yes, as the first commenter above argued, CiF Watch has indeed published a number of posts, which would disturb genuine progressives, about the Guardian’s licensing of illiberal, decidedly Judeophobic commentators at ‘Comment is Free’.
  • Yes, one would certainly expect the Editor to establish a transparent dialogue with these critics and take a closer look at the ideological extremism they are implicitly endorsing.
  • The two comments posted above have garnered nearly 200 recommends and, remarkably, have NOT been deleted by CiF moderators.

Will 2013 be remembered as the year in which the spirit of openness, tolerance and liberalization (what may be known as Glasnost and Perestroika to the Cold War brats among us) finally penetrated the anachronistic and suffocating radical chic political environment which has long dominated the Guardian’s London salon?

Have the liberal journalistic upheavals of the ‘Guardian Spring’ arrived? 

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